that may depend on how the election goes. having said, that susie, i do think policymakers, the next president, the next congress-- whoever that may be-- will come together and nail down the fiscal cliff sufficiently reasonably so our economy can get going again. it's going to be a little hairy early next year because there will be political back and forth and brinksmanship. but i think we will do what we need to do, and the good fundamentals in the economy, the fact that american businesses are very competitive, very profitable, that the american banks are capitalized and howms holds are reducing debt, all of those things shine through. >> susie: i hope you're right about that, mark. thanks so much for coming on the program. mark zandi, at mood. >> tom: still ahead, it's been one year since apple founder and visionary steve jobs died. tonight we look ahead to technology that could be in our future. an update on europe and its ongoing financial crisis. e.u. officials say the region's economy shrunk more than expected in the s